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Dangerous Driving Reviewed


Buzz Billsberry

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DANGEROUS DRIVING REVIEWED

Excessive speeding to result in dangerous driving convictions?

The definition of "dangerous driving" is:

(a) where the standard of driving falls far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver, and (b) it would be obvious to a competent and careful driver that driving in that way would be dangerous.

"Dangerous" means danger either of injury to any person or of serious damage to property.

The offence of Careless Driving (section 3 of the 1988 Act, as substituted by the 1991 Act) is committed where a person drives a vehicle without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for others.

The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) has published the main report of a major research project into the law on dangerous driving.

The three-year project carried out by TRL Limited (the Transport Research Laboratory) involved a detailed study of current practice in the charging, prosecution and conviction of bad driving offences, and in particular how the offences of Dangerous Driving and Causing Death by Dangerous Driving have been implemented since their introduction in the Road Traffic Act 1991.

Welcoming the report, Transport Minister, David Jamieson, commented:

"This is a comprehensive piece of work dealing with a difficult and sometimes controversial area of the law. It provides much food for thought and we will be considering the report's conclusions and recommendations very carefully with other Departments."

The main findings of the report are:

i) The introduction of the offences of Dangerous Driving and Causing Death by Dangerous Driving, in place of Reckless Driving, in the Road Traffic Act 1991 has not led to an increase in convictions for serious driving offences, even though they were intended to be easier to prove.

ii) The Government should consult on the creation of an intermediate offence to deal with driving behaviour not amounting to Dangerous Driving but significantly more serious than Careless Driving, with more severe penalties than the lesser offence, including imprisonment.

iii) To recognise the suffering and impact that severe and permanent injuries have on victims and their families, the current offence of Causing Death by Dangerous Driving, and the equivalent proposed intermediate offence, should be extended to apply to serious injury as well as death.

Amongst the various issues covered, the project aimed to identify any procedural or legislative difficulties in the current system, the criteria which lead prosecutors to select one offence rather than another and what influences courts to choose particular penalties when passing sentence. TRL also examined conviction and sentencing trends before and after the 1991 Act came into force, together with the motoring violation and criminal histories of those convicted of dangerous driving and their reoffending rates.

The research did not find sufficient grounds to recommend the introduction of an offence of Causing Death by Careless Driving, although it is suggested that it should be included as an option in any consultation exercise on a new, intermediate offence. The report does recommend that there should be a clear message about the relationship between speeding and dangerous driving and suggests that drivers who exceed the speed limit by a significant margin should face prosecution for that offence.

The report has also been placed on the Department's website at www.roads.dtlr.gov.uk/roadsafety/research26/index.htm

Buzz :cool:

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